Sea-surface temperatures sampled from space are used to chart the warm Gulf Stream waters where fish congregate. 

 Sportfishermen, among others, use the charts during tournaments to home in on prime fishing grounds. 



The U.S. Navy and the National 

 Weather Service are among the big- 

 name clients. 



But oceanographers are the time- 

 honored patrons of this technology. 

 In fact, outside of the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Defense, most of the 

 nation's satellite technology has been 

 advanced by researchers of ocean 

 dynamics, says Len Pietrafesa, head 

 of the Department of Marine, Earth 

 and Atmospheric Sciences (MEAS) 

 at N.C. State University. 



That's not to say, though, that 

 modem advances in satellite technol- 

 ogy are limited to ocean research. 

 Uses for these artificial moons have 

 skyrocketed in the 34 years since 

 Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, 

 orbited Earth. 



Environmental science — 

 measuring the planet's vital signs — 

 is a fast-emerging field for satellite 

 technology. And it's gaining ground 

 on the more established weather 

 forecasting and national defense 

 programs, particularly with the close 

 of the Cold War. 



Even NASA, the patriarch of 

 space exploration, is stepping away 

 from the manned space projects that 

 defined it for decades to join the 

 research pace toward environmental 

 science. 



Globally, a battery of satellites is 

 used to monitor ozone depletion and 

 the greenhouse effect. Through 

 surveillance of ocean-surface 

 temperatures, researchers are just 

 now witnessing the onset of global 



warming that, before the 1980s, was 

 largely unnoticed. Satellites also 

 assist in marine transportation, sea 

 fog forecasting, and search-and- 

 rescue of downed aircraft and ships 

 in distress. They predict natural 

 disasters and document the destruc- 

 tion of tropical forests. 



Closer to home, sea-surface 

 temperatures gathered by satellite are 

 used to track episodes of red tide that 

 pollute shellfish, help predict flood- 

 ing in the Pamlico and Albemarle 

 sounds and monitor the movement of 

 water laden with fish and shrimp 

 larvae. 



And fishermen like Martin rely 

 on the electronic images to target 

 their deep-sea bounty when thou- 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 3 



